As is often the case, I’m not sure which of Robert Silverberg’s books I first read. In fact, it may well have been an anthology of some sort where he was both a contributor of a story or two as well as the editor. Here’s his Goodreads.com bio:

Robert Silverberg is one of science fiction’s most beloved writers, and the author of such contemporary classics as Dying Inside, Downward to the Earth and Lord Valentine’s Castle, as well as At Winter’s End, also available in a Bison Books edition. He is a past president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the winner of five Nebula Awards and five Hugo Awards. In 2004 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America presented him with the Grand Master Award. Silverberg is one of twenty-nine writers to have received that distinction.

I think I am most impressed by his non-fiction, even though I don’t think I have read any of it (looking through the titles and his pseudonyms none of them look familiar). Yet, the titles cover a lot of periods of history and biographical figures that I have found fascinating. Seventy-six of his 77 non-fiction works were written from 1960 – 1974, a period when the sci-fi field was in a lull but even during this period, he still was writing one or two award winning sci-fi books each year.

One surprising thing about Silverberg is how little of his writing has been used for TV or movies either one. His IMDB page shows only five writing credits. The most well known film is Bicentennial Man starring Robin Williams and based on an Asimov short story of the same name and an Asimov/Silverberg collaboration titled Positronic Man. Otherwise, there are a couple of TV movies, one short movie and an episode of the re-make of The Twilight Zone.Picture from Johan A licensed under Creative Commons

I know now that I did read some sci-fi in my teens but I really started reading both sci-fi and fantasy when I hit my 20s. Both sci-fi and fantasy anthologies are usually pretty good (along with noirish mysteries). Silverberg is one of the top anthology editors I’ve read

Tastes in SF vary widely, something which took me a very long while to appreciate. Silverberg is one of those fellows who seems to have been around forever, and I’ve read quite a bit of his stuff over the years. Strangely though, I don’t possess a single novel by him. He’s one of those fellow I ‘like’ rather than ‘love’.

Still, at ‘only’ 79 years of age, his fans may see more of his output in the coming years. After all, Charles Harness wrote the delightful Cybele, With Bluebonnets while in his late eighties.

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